Sweden

Introduction In a narrow Swedish perspective, industrial relations underwent dramatic changes during the last decades of the twentieth century. Some of the characteristics of what was once called the Swedish Model were said to have changed or even vanished (Hermansson et al. 1999; Swenson and Pontusson 2000; Rothstein 2001). According to some researchers and in a comparative perspective, this had important and extensive effects on the labour market regime (Fulcher 1991; Visser 1996: 179; Iversen 1998; Swenson and Pontusson 2000; Wallerstein and Golden 2000; Elvander 2002a). First and foremost, a central part of the Swedish model, the centralized bargaining system, was gradually replaced with more decentralized forms. Peak organizations lost ground to national unions and the details in national agreements were often settled at local level (Kjellberg 1998). At the same time unionization has continuously declined. Within the political sphere the strong bonds between unions and the Social Democratic Party have loosened. Industrial organizations have partly withdrawn and partly been excluded from administrative agency boards involved in labour market regulation. This has resulted in less infl uence over the agencies responsible for regulating and implementing government policies in all policy areas, most importantly less infl uence over welfare and labour market policies. Supporting labour laws and welfare policies based on a high-tax system have been put under pressure. Privatization, deregulation and tax reforms imply less generous contributions and less support for union demands.